I’ve gotten a little tired of all the stories about Chinese and nationalism around that I spent most of last weekend trying to avoid most foreign news coverage about it. But I was dragged back in an interesting way when I learned to a recent podcast on the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) Radio’s Ideas program. [...]
Archive for April, 2008
QQ&A: Han Han holds hope
With the swarm of anti-France/boycott-Carrefour messages still plaguing the wireless networks, IM chats and BBSes, it was a pleasant surprise to run across Jason’s post at Over and Out sharing a QQ forward he received that – shockingly – doesn’t rise up and call to arms the seething masses of ultra-nationalists. For this laowai, I [...]
Crossing The Line
Recall the old expression: teachers are to act in loco parentis. This means, if my high school Latin still serves me, that during school hours the teachers are responsible for assuming the role of parents in the lives of their students. Yet as anyone knows, this doesn’t really work. As teenagers, the last things we [...]
In Defense of Your Er Nai, by: the male ego
Ah, springtime in Jiangnan: fields awash in patches of yellow canola blooms…plum and cherry petals whipping around the picnickers beneath them…lovers meeting secretly before the wife gets home… Yes, springtime is much more beautiful when it’s shared with an er nai. And why not? You’ve got the money to keep one–rent an apartment, buy expensive [...]
Carrefour needs catchy mobile meme
Hot off the extremely reliable mobile SMS chain comes news that Carrefour and the French government have banned together to concoct a special May Holiday sale to lure Chinese customers away from their boycott. And not just that, French TV is hoping to catch it all for the 6-o’clock news, presumably to put the French [...]
Sports + Politics = No French Bread
The lead-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympics has spun so totally out of whack that I believe they need to add a new sport to the Games – Puerile Ping Pong. The event pits countries from across the globe against each other in a balls-out relay race to see who can reach absolute absurdity first, [...]
‘My money’s on China’, Some Grey Bloke
A little humour to lighten the mood about the whole thing. H/T Pandapassport, via Hao Hao Report (like this video? Be sure to vote for it.)
Photo of the Week: Medicine No Fakes
Well, it’s been a while since our Photo of the Week section was added to – but I thought I’d break the silence with this interesting photo by Bruno Porto. Every week(ish) we’ll feature an interesting, funny, beautiful or otherwise noteworthy photo here. If you have a photo you think might make a good Photo [...]
China’s multiple entry visas cut off until after Olympics
In what can only be assumed to be fear over increased problems related to the Olympic games, China has cut off multiple entry travel visas, and limited them to 30 days. As Journey to Nowhere reports from the SCMP (which stoically continues to charge for online content): Beijing has stopped issuing multiple-entry visas, risking major [...]
“Hey Laowai, hey shoe shine, shoe shine 10 yuan very good hey!”
If you ever been around Shanghai’s People’s Square and Nanjing West Road, you’ve seen them — the shoe shine guys. They’ve got their little foot bench that doubles as a carryall for their oily rags and 3-kuai tube of shoe polish. If you work in that area of Shanghai these guys will pester you. Two [...]
